Making films about a person’s life will always be tricky. How can you fit in so much with such limitations on time, budget, and narrative flow? This challenge is particularly harder when you have to adapt a larger-than-life figure—in Antoine Fuqua’s case, Michael Jackson in “Michael”—and have to deal with the legal rumblings of the person’s estate and a highly publicized life where every period has been recorded by the media.
Michael Jackson can have a film dedicated to only a year of his life, and it’s still not enough to capture the fundamentals. You can explore how his natural talent shone through as the wunderkind of Jackson 5, how his father beat him and had a tight grip on his early career, and what led him to the creation of his iconic songs.
“Michael,” the movie is a surface-level biopic. There are infinite opportunities to go into the psyche of Michael. In fact, I would love to see more of the work ethic he has while producing the back-to-back hit albums Thriller and Bad (the concert tour of this record is where the film ended before putting the “His story continues” text for a hopeful sequel).
They say, judge a film on the merits of its own confines, but I like to think this is the optimistic Michael Jackson biopic that is light for a reason. This is the film that sets itself up for a more controversial and darker sequel, and no way you can go through Michael’s body insecurities and allegations with children without balancing it with his positive personalities in the first film.
On “Michael’s” own merit, not looking beyond for a film that isn’t being officially announced yet, I got what I wanted. I expect recreations of concerts, behind-the-scenes encounters in his music videos, and his relationship with his father. Can it be improved? A hundred percent. It's a popcorn movie that got its message across.
Jaafar Jackson won me over as Michael. His performance goes beyond imitation. Where he truly shines is during intimate moments of close-ups that truly give him more depth to play around with. Colman Domingo is also impressive as Joe, the antagonistic father. Sadly, there’s a high chance that their performance will be swept away by the major criticisms this film experiences from mixed responses of critics and audiences.
“Michael” is now showing in cinemas.
Featured
images from Universal Pictures.
Comments
Post a Comment